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Re: Dexter with constant diarrhea - ideas?

Sorry to say, but it does sound like Johnes. If it turns out to be the case, get the rest of the herd tested. It's a bugger of a disease to get rid of from a herd but the last thing to do is bury your head in the sand about it.

Re: Dexter with constant diarrhea - ideas?

Originally Posted by Scruffy Dug

Sorry to say, but it does sound like Johnes. If it turns out to be the case, get the rest of the herd tested. It's a bugger of a disease to get rid of from a herd but the last thing to do is bury your head in the sand about it.

Re: Dexter with constant diarrhea - ideas?

Re: Dexter with constant diarrhea - ideas?

Fluke? or Jhones? - Jhones isn't a problem as such as it is hereditary, so manageable, check with a vet but I'm pretty sure it is NOT contagious.

We have had a couple like this over the years, one never recovered and died in the end, we had her PM'd and the only thing we could find was small signs of liver fluke (I'm not convinced this is what killed her), the other seemed to suddenly recover....

BUT there is no substitute for seeing the animal, it could be a number of things, swallowing a wire, an abscess somewhere, viral something, check for the obvious first... I would push the vet let them know your not happy with diagnosis/response of the animal.

One tip is that if the animal is a pet or has some exceptional value you MAY be able to get the vet practice to get one of the Veterinary Uni's to have a look, some have a link to the Veterinary Training staff that have far more equipment and are more at the experimental/research side of veterinary science, some of the universities have a fixed fee sort of thing that they offer to come and look at 'unusual' problems, they often have equipment more akin to the NHS which is uneconomical for your average day to day vet.... If the vets do have this link there would be a cost I am sure!

Re: Dexter with constant diarrhea - ideas?

Originally Posted by Einstien

Jhones isn't a problem as such as it is hereditary, so manageable, check with a vet but I'm pretty sure it is NOT contagious.

Believe me, Johnes is contagious. It can be passed on either through an infected mother's milk, or in the later stages of the disease the infected animal will shed the bacteria through its dung. If the animals are housed, this can easily lead to otherwise 'clean' genetic lines becoming infected. Young calves tend to be the most vulnerable in that situation, but it is possible for older cattle to become infected if the bacterial challenge is high enough.

Re: Dexter with constant diarrhea - ideas?

I agree with Scruffy on this one. Johnes IS contagious it is passed as Scruffy said - from mother to calf via milk but also is excreted in the dung as the bacterial load in the infected gut increases. Isolation and culling I'm afraid. Test all your stock and expect to cull any positives no matter how healthy they are (any young stock could be kept for slaughter age, if symptom free). If you ignore it, you will be building up trouble for the future so best dealt with by management of carriers now.
Not sure about cattle but there is a vaccine for sheep, only good for lambs at about 3-6 weeks of age but you have to hope they haven't already become infected because then it won't work (that's why you cull out infected ewes).
I would kick the vet up the ass about the blood test wait - should get the results in a week not 2!
If it is Johnes that Dexter will not survive so best get it culled - it's very unpleasant in the latter stages.
Saying all that, I hope it's fluke.

Re: Dexter with constant diarrhea - ideas?

Originally Posted by windylamb

Test all your stock and expect to cull any positives no matter how healthy they are (any young stock could be kept for slaughter age, if symptom free). If you ignore it, you will be building up trouble for the future so best dealt with by management of carriers now.
Not sure about cattle but there is a vaccine for sheep, only good for lambs at about 3-6 weeks of age but you have to hope they haven't already become infected because then it won't work (that's why you cull out infected ewes).

+1
I think there is a vaccine for cattle but if memory serves me it can interfere with TB test results so most farms tend not to use this method of control.
Blood tests are fairly accurate in so far as they don't throw up that many false positives (but they're not unknown), so anything that comes back with a positive blood test I would always cull (but that's just my opinion). I know it goes against the grain to cull what looks to be a perfectly healthy animal, but they are just walking timebombs. It's the damage they do to the other cattle in the herd that you have to keep in mind.